Nick Castellanos, for the second straight game Sunday, created some fireworks against the St. Louis Cardinals.
This time, he let his play do the talking.
In the bottom of the fifth inning, Castellanos barreled a 91-mph cutter and watched it sail over the center-field wall. When Cardinals center fielder Dylan Carlson came up empty on his leap at the fence, the 11,629 people in the Great American Ball Park crowd erupted.
It was a go-ahead, three-run homer by – who else? – the man who has been center stage all weekend. His hitting ignited the rest of the lineup to lead the Reds to a 12-1 victory, taking two of the three games in their season-opening series against the Cardinals.
"That right there is just a big player coming through in a big spot," Reds starter Jeff Hoffman said. "That’s what guys like that do. I actually said it to Sonny (Gray) before he walked up to the plate, I said, ‘This is the guy I want up in this situation.’"
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The Reds scored 27 runs and totaled 30 hits in their first three games of the season, the third-most runs they've scored through three games in club history (36 in 1895 and 33 in 1976) according to Elias Sports Bureau.
They never scored more than 24 runs in any series or three-game stretch last year. Castellanos was a big catalyst with six hits in 11 at-bats this weekend, which included two homers, five RBI and six runs scored.
"When he’s hot, he’s hot," said rookie Jonathan India, who hits with Castellanos in the offseason. "He’s, I think, one of the best hitters in baseball. I love watching him play. His mentality throughout the game is unbelievable. He’s a dog out there."
It was just one weekend – accounting for 2% of the 162-game season – but what a start for the offense. There were few changes in the offseason to a lineup that failed to score a run across 22 innings when they were swept out of the postseason.
It’s essentially the same group that had a league-low .212 batting average. Including the playoffs, the Reds totaled 23 runs over their final seven games last year.
Hitting is contagious, the saying goes, but the Reds seem to be playing with an edge.
"Our guys worked so hard last year and the results didn't show up," Reds manager David Bell said. "When it happens, a lot of good things can be built on that. The momentum, the confidence and all that, it is important, even though it is three games."
Cardinals right-hander Carlos Martínez pitched three perfect innings before Castellanos hit a one-out triple off the center-field wall in the fourth inning.
Castellanos raised his arms as he stood on third base and shouted toward his teammates in the dugout, “Let’s go!” It was the same thing he yelled, without one colorful word added, when he stood over Cardinals reliever Jake Woodford on Saturday, leading to a benches-clearing incident and his first career ejection.
Four pitches later, Joey Votto drilled an RBI single into right field to score Castellanos. It was Votto’s hardest hit, according to Statcast since it started tracking data in 2015. Just like that, the no-hitter was gone, and the shutout disappeared.
"That’s raw emotion that comes out of him," India said of Castellanos said. "That’s how I am as a player. I’ll go to war with that dude all day."
The flood gates opened in a six-run sixth inning against the Cardinals bullpen. Rookies India and Tyler Stephenson had back-to-back RBI singles on ground balls that snuck through the infield. Nick Senzel scored on a wild pitch, pumping his fist after sliding under a tag.
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Then Tyler Naquin provided the big blast with a no-doubt, three-run homer that flew halfway up the right-field seats. Naquin, who signed a minor-league deal with the Reds in February, watched the ball’s flight for a moment out of the batter’s box – his first homer as a member of the Reds.
"That heightened the mood a little bit (Saturday)," Naquin said. "To be able to come out, win and actually pour it on like that, it says a lot for the guys coming out and continuing to grind."
The energy spread to the pitching staff, too. Tejay Antone had two runners on base in the sixth inning before he retired Paul Goldschmidt, Nolan Arenado and Paul DeJong in order to protect a three-run lead.
Antone, who touched 99-mph with his fastball in his season debut, jumped off the mound with excitement when he struck out DeJong to strand two runners in scoring position.
"That was a big key to the game," Bell said. "That could've been a turning point in either direction. The last pitch he made to DeJong, I believe, it was a 3-2 slider. It's big, big-time."
Hoffman, making his Reds debut, made a nice first impression. He struck out six across five innings, permitting three hits and one run. It was his first start since the 2019 season, pitching exclusively out of the bullpen for the Colorado Rockies last year.
He earned a spot in the rotation when Sonny Gray and Michael Lorenzen were placed on the 10-day injured list to start the season, and he looked the part Sunday. He worked ahead in counts, throwing 55 of his 77 pitches for strikes.
"Probably the best we've seen him," Bell said.
The Reds will begin a three-game series with the Pittsburgh Pirates at 6:40 p.m. Monday to complete their season-opening homestand, but they couldn't have scripted a better two days after losing on Opening Day.
"We’re always feeding off each other," Hoffman said. "That’s something that great teams do."
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